A plan to change the structure of a board that helps the council decide which firm is the best company to win million dollar parish contracts received approval from the council at its legislative committee meeting Monday night.
The current board consists of five members from various colleges and universities around the state.
The council will choose local residents to make up the new board to help the parish decide the best-qualified candidates for parish contracts.
“We need a local board to help us determine the best firm to win these contracts, preferably people with engineering backgrounds,” Parish President V.J. St. Pierre said. “We’ve been using this system for a long time and I don’t see why we can’t let local engineers or business people make decisions on what firm should be awarded engineering contracts for the parish.”
Councilwoman Carolyn Schexnaydre said that the same firm has been winning contracts in the parish for the last 17 years.
“From what I understand, someone calculated the amount of money this engineering firm has made off of St. Charles Parish and it comes to about $653 every day for the last 17 years,” she said. “That’s a lot of money, and I want to know what kind of progress this firm has made on its projects.”
V.J. St. Pierre plans to address this issue.
“I am meeting with the engineering firms in question, including Shread-Kuyrkendall & Associates, and in two weeks the council will be getting an update of all of the contracts they hold.” he said. “We want to know what they’re still working on and what we owe them. We’re doing that with all of the contracts still outstanding in the parish from all engineering firms.”
Councilman Paul Hogan agreed, noting that the parish has used the same engineer for several years.
“Some people think that Shread-Kuyrkendall & Associates Inc. is the parish engineer for St. Charles Parish and that’s not true,” he said. “It’s a new council in place now and we want to change the way things were done in the past.”
Hogan says everyone deserves a chance and he wants the playing field level for everyone.
Currently, the board consists of five professionals, mostly engineers from various colleges outside of St. Charles Parish. The council wants to use local residents that are professionals, possibly in the engineering field, to decide what firm has the best application and should be given the opportunity to do each project.
Tim Vial explained the board’s procedures to the council.
“The parish has a project, then the contract is written and it goes out for bid and is placed in the legal section of the newspaper,” he said. “QBS calls a meeting and rates all of the contracts and then the board gives a contract a one, two, or third place rating.”
Vial says the firm with the highest contract rating, a one, meets before the parish council and they decide if they want to use that firm or not.
“If not, then the council will proceed forward and review the board’s number two and three selection,” he said.
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